Saturday, June 26, 2010

'Shifty' Affairs and Henpecked Husbands...

So yeah, I've been away a while. Not to say that I forgot about this piece of online property that belongs to me. In fact I've gone weeks thinking about the title of this post with a silent chuckle at the wordplay (you'll see in a bit)

As you know my roomie, umm ex-roomie PS went and got married and though I did suggest that I'd move in with them and stay in a small corner without disturbing at all (he laughed rather derisively, for the record).

Left with no option and after getting over denial I did go forth and hunted for a house. And the moving is what I was quite busy with for a while.

It's not an easy job. You just don't realize how much stuff you accrue over time even in a fairly frugal existence. But more important is that actual getting up and doing part of beginning to pack things. I spent over two weeks procrastinating, staring at the vast fields of stuff that had to be, somehow, boundarized into boxes. I would come home from work after excusing myself from any evening plans with a terse 'gotta pack today', and sit forlornly in a corner with a beverage for company as I tried to muster up the nerve to get on with the job and actually put that first rag of cloth in the box.

In fact if it wasn't for PS turning up one day and starting the packing for me, I would still be staying there giving twice the rent I could afford.

Anyway, it's all done now and though there were numerous exasperating incidents involving getting the Airtel TV and internet in the new house - took me three weeks and atleast a 100 manhours on the phone to get the TV installation finally done (It got so bad that the customer support guy would recognize my voice as soon as I'd call up - not that that helped too much. I had sourced Sunil Bharti Mittal's email id and was about to drop a scathing email to him but the TV started functioning just prior to that. Also, writing to CEOs works if you're totally exasperated. We actually got a signal booster from Hutch installed in our house with this tactic!)

About the new house, it's a nice, cute (not my words) 1 bedroom apartment. It's location is awesome as it's surrounded with watering holes and restaurants and bookshops and little cafes.It also means that I can get up half an hour later than my usual time with the reduced driving time. With the new petrol price hike this reduction could have a significant impact on my monthly budget, which I'll immediately cover by indulging in one of the places I mentioned earlier.

And now to the henpecked husbands part!

Yesterday, a couple of friends H and R were getting engaged (umm to each other)and we were all going to the ceremony. I had to rush from office and, I know it's terrible, I just went the way I was - in my jeans and a fortunately decent looking shirt. So I went to Sid and R's place where A and P were to join and then we'd all go together. For clarification to the new reader Sid and R, and A and P are married couples. As I walked into the house and saw all four of them my spider sense started tingling. There was something, not really odd but significant, that it was picking up. There was some characteristic of the scene that I just couldn't lay my finger on.

I stared and stared for another five minutes before it hit me! A's shirt was the same colour as P's sari and Sid's shirt matched the border of R's sari. They were dressed up as matching pairs! I almost choked laughing and had to sit down. It just seemed so funny because I hang out with these people all the time and this is the sappiest thing I've seen them do!